Does your left hand know what your right hand is doing? - 'policy coherence in basic skills provision' discussed by EBSN on its 2015 Annual Collaborative Workshop

Lacking basic skills is a multilateral challenge. It can be addressed from different perspectives like social inclusion, education, employment, health or from local, national or European levels. Creation of accordance in between approaches and exploiting synergies of measures are really a coordination stunt. But what does coherence in between policies really mean and why is it important in basic skills provision? How can policy coherence be created and what are the hindering factors? All these questions were in the centre of the inspiring keynote speech of David Mallows (UK) and the following group discussions at the Annual Collaborative Workshop and Conference of the European Basic Skills Network held in the Hague, The Netherlands in between 3rd and 5th of June, 2015. The following interview with David Mallows, the Research Director of the National Research and Development Centre for Literacy and Numeracy (London) summerises some of the insights presented on the conference and informs about the indications of the delegates.